Silk nice, icecube on my bum not.

Ok, so in the face of all that's going on right now with my step dad being ill and having recently lost my step mom - which brings the loss of my dad to the forefront of my mind and heart, I decided that if the kids won't let me get time on the wheel I'd haul out a drop spindle. After all, with a drop spindle there is no chance of little fingers getting caught in whirring parts.

So I've been working on a lovely silk colorway that I think is in need of spinning up in a ply with some Alpaca. The Alpaca only has me peeved with trying to ply it with more alpaca and I think that's got a lot to do with the fact that I'm using the onboard kate and my HitchHiker to do the plying, so my need for a real tensioned kate is coming back into play.

*sigh* I was going to get one at the CT Sheep and Wool festival - really, but for whatever reason it didn't happen.

I need to keep an eye out for one, maybe if we get to go to Coggeshall farm in RI this weekend I'll find something I like.

So - regarding the title? My three year old daughter is an ice chewer. She just crawled into bed and dropped a piece of ice down the back of my pajamas giving me a rude awakening. Then she runs off giggling maniacally.

I want to know who taught her that trick. I truly think they deserve a special thank you of their own. Don't you?

Well wishes sought

My step dad had a heart attack last night. Not a strong man to begin with, this is a very bad bit of news. There may be a trip to Las Vegas for me soon, and it's not to gamble...

I have a rough game plan if I need to go out for the funeral, and a very liberal boss who will undoubtedly be understanding. My complications will be of the financial and toddler kind. Yep - my 14 month old is still nursing, and it's not like I could leave him behind. It's hard enough thinking about leaving my three year old and husband, but man airfare isn't cheap and we've cut down our trips out as it is - I saw gas on the pump this morning for 3.99 a gallon. OUCH.

Now if he happens to miraculously recover (ha - don't laugh, he's managed it before, he's awful ornery and love my mom too much to just check out on her despite frail health) then I'll be taking my three year old to the fiber fest at the Coggeshall farm in Rhode Island next Saturday. She has a love for spinning, and I think that getting her turned on to non oil dependent (other than the petrol to get there to learn more) activities and fabrics and means of living is a good thing.

We'll have to see what the week brings before we make solid plans.

I'm too productive out of the office.

Today is my work from home day... those days usually start earlier, and end later than a work in the office day, and I am usually saner by the end of it as well.

Already today I've gotten 2 reports and one major document finished, and that was in the first hour of the day. It's a rainy grey day and I'll be slipping folding laundry into listenening to teleconferences. I get asked "How do you do it all Annie?" and well there's a glimpse... like most working mom's I've learned to multi-task at a level I personally thought unatainable before having kids.

Seriously, I've also gotten a couple of loads of laundry started and have a batch of wool I'll be cleaning today so I can card it and then dye it. (Crossing my fingers on the wool scouring as it's rainy, it won't happen if the weather stays so gross.)

I've also got yarn to ply, measure and photograph for the Etsy store, as well as new labels to make up for the existing yarn I have in stock. ahhhhhh I love my little color printer. It makes life so much more fun - printed out coloring pages for my daughter, photocopies of documents for me, etc...

When my SIL moved I interited her big old plastic bins that she had kept dog food in. These are going to be re-purposed to hold wool. These are tasks that don't have to get done today, but will hopefully be done by end of weekend. I am going to finish out my office/studio and get it back in shape where I'm happy with it. This means that I'll have several rubbermaid bins that will be re-purposed as well.

Yep. Work from home days are nice. I made hot ham n cheese sandwiches for lunch for my hubby and I, nuked some kids meals for the tots and on top of it all I'm also not using gas in my car. Yep. Definately nice.

Why would people be so thoughtless?

Where - MD Sheep and Wool Festival
When - Last weekend while I was in NH (see previous post)
What - Theft, Vandalism, Animal's let out of pens

Read here, and lets all watch out for eachother this festival season ok?

Kids and Dog

So outside of my spinning, I also have two other loves in my life. My family and my dog. The kids go without saying, and I've described them as my soul on my sleeve. They really are my world, and are the reason I'm a grown up these days...

The dog?

What can be said about Daisy... This little stinker of nearly two years ago

is now this little stinker (Picture taken tonight as I ran out for iced coffee at Dunkins)

She's still doing the weight fluctuation thing, and I broke down and went to the Butcher to get trimmings. Adding extra fat to her diet has been extremely beneficial, and she's starting to get a better sheen to her coat, and is just happier. She's never going to be a rolypoly dog, it's just not in her make up, but I can at least get a little extra flesh on her bones and an insulatory layer. The fatty trimmings aren't going to ever be a staple in her diet, but I can hopefully get an insulatory layer built up under her skin, as she was so lean that this winter was hard on her. No sweater would have helped.

We're going to go back to dog training classes later this spring, and she needs to be better about not having accidents in her crate. She's good about peeing, but not always great about her bowels... I had taken her out of dog daycare in January as we just couldn't justify the expense any longer - the money just wasn't there, but I wish we could put her back in.

I might make a decent living, but my kids needs come first over my dog playing all day with other dogs. We have 'Guiness' the kodiak bear disguised as a dog, down stairs to play with, as well as my MIL and SIL's dogs to play with on weekends - something I'm hoping to do more of now that the winter is over. She is playing more with Tessa instead of just jumping on her, but she's still got house training issues... she isn't good at the communicating her needs thing, and I don't know really how to change that, so I'll be dependent on the trainer for help with that. It's back to the Brittany Dog boards I guess...

Anyhow - I hope to get some better pictures of her soon, but I thought I'd share the pic I have here for now. She really is a sweet dog, and like my kids - each day she reveals more about who she is and how much fun she is to have around.

She's the sweetest thing though, and a real pleasure to spend time with. As she and the kids get older they all get to interact more.

I was contacted a couple of months back by someone who got their puppy from the same litter as Daisy's... wanting to know if we'd gotten papers to register her. None of Audrey and Arrow's pups were papered, as Audrey wasn't. What do you expect for a dog that is specifically not a show dog. She's a pet, she might be bird trained in the future, but that would mean I'd need to have her actually going out birding, and as we've not been in touch with our friend Brian that much lately (He's a police officer the next town over, and has voiced an interest in taking Daisy Birding if she were trained) I've not seen the point in looking into that aspect of her training.

Daisy doesn't care that she doesn't have papers either. She just wants to have that next meaty bone or sirloin trimming ;-) We're participating in a DNA study about Brittany dogs, which should be interesting.

On to the weekend, and my non spinning time...

Are these the cutest kids in the world? Seriously - I know I'm their mom, but still... and man Garret DOES NOT LIKE his monkey suit... can't blame him.

Have wheel will travel!

What do you do when you own a Hitchhiker and have a wedding to go to out of town?

Why you throw it in your minivan of course!

Friday morning while my family was asleep I broke down the Great Wheel, who by the way has a name now – Deborah. It’s components are spread between my kids play room and my daughter’s bedroom, and will stay that way for the next few weeks at least. After grabbing another bump of fiber, and making sure I had adequate number of bobbins packed too, I finished packing the Mini Van, and woke the family. We drove up to New Hampshire, attended the wedding rehearsal, checked in to the hotel, went to the rehearsal dinner and the kids and I basically collapsed in our hotel room from exhaustion of the day.

Saturday morning was a whole other banana! Up before everyone else, I brought out PC and spun up the rest of the Alpaca I’ve been working on. While trying to correct for some over spinning I of course under spun and a join separated, so I need to fix that before I can ply it. I love working with Alpaca though, as it’s so soft and really an easy fiber for me to work with. After getting breakfast with my daughter and then getting the rest of the family moving we did the typical wedding prep, including tuxedos for the guys, and dressing us gals up. My daughter was in heaven to be wearing her little spaghetti strapped dress.

The wedding was beautiful, and I can’t say more than it was a good evening for all – even for the baby who has been trying to break through his molars.

I’d hoped to get more spinning done, but it wasn’t to happen on that trip. We fell fast asleep once we got back and checked out the following morning. I still think it was a win-win for me as I got to get to the Alpaca without disruption, something I don’t get much of with a toddler and a preschooler.

Once I got home on Sunday I did a brief inventory. I realized that I need to get some singles plied up, twist set, measured and photographed so I can get them up on Etsy. I have probably a dozen skeins that are waiting to be listed, in all sorts of colors.

This morning I’ve gotten an order packaged up and ready to be dropped in the mail room… my hand painted yarn is going in dribs and drabs, but that’s ok. It was fun to make, and I enjoyed it. I’m not sure how regular I may be on doing the hand dyed / commercial spun, as I want to get a bunch of roving dyed up and focus on my own spun yarn both for the therapeutic value of spinning, and of course to sell on Etsy.

I’m spinning silk today on a drop spindle at work. I’ve had meeting from heck day going on where I’ve had the phone (handsfree unit) glued to my head, and haven’t gotten a chance to even get up to go to the bathroom. I do however have a lovely cop building up on the spindle.

Hitchhiker Tuneup

After fighting with the wheel for 6 months I took this with me to the CT Sheep and Wool Festival and had David Paul from the Merlin Tree give it a once over for me. I love this little wheel for the portability, but man the ability to use it has been pretty hampered as it was noisy, and seemed to have a wobble to it - which it did due to a broken wheel bearing... which David replaced at no charge. The gals at Stitch N Bitch will all be happier for the lack of obnoxious clacking.

It works beautiful now, due to the combined efforts of both my Father in Law and David, and betwixt the two I now can spin pretty much anywhere... infact as I type this, the wheel is in the trunk of my car and is going to be brought into the office with me tomorrow so when I get stressed out I can spin on lunch and relax again.




We have a wedding to go to over the weekend, and this little wheel will be coming with. Right now I have some Alpaca on the bobbin from Hunter Hill Alpaca's in part because a very dear friend finally lit a fire under me and said she realllllllllllly wanted some that I'd hand spun. ;-)

In my fiber chest I also happen to have some Cormo/Angora, Cormo, Romney, Bison, Bombyx Silk, Ramboullet, Mohair, Navajo Churro, Merino, Tussah Silk, and Tencil. I'm sure I've forgotten some - but in good time it will all end up either given as gifts to my knitter friends, or sold in my Etsy shop.

CT Sheep and Wool Fest Day!

First of all - it was a very tiny little festival, but a lovely one.

I discovered a couple of things - first I have readers of this blog!!! Yay! I've not put in any sort of sitemeter here, just haven't figured it out for here, so it's not been put in... and so I don't know my traffic at all - for all I knew I was writing to my self.

So it's a treat to hear "Oh you're the Blogger at The WoolWytch!" Makes me have my own Sally Fields 'you like me, you really like me' moment. *grins*

Anyhow - I got a late start to the day, so I missed out on classes I'd hoped to take this morning, but did get my HitchHiker Mini tuned up. David Paul from the Merlin Tree was there, and looked at it. It needed new bearings, as well as some other minor work, but my S&B group will be very happy to have a bit more silence on Wednesday nights, vs the sound of a playing card in the spokes of a bicycle wheel.

She spins lovely and I got started on 4 ounces of hand painted Merino that I pre-drafted over the course of the week. It's a very pretty colorway of greens and purples, and I will be Navajo Plying it I think.

I spent time with my friend Claire and her family, bought more fiber that was new to me for spinning - finer grade, supposedly more difficult.

I thought I'd have video, as I took lots of footage, but I'm still not too bright on video editing, so the vids will have to follow.

For the mean time, I'm tired - it wasn't a large festival but I walked quite a bit today as well as got that spinning done, and I am now pooped. The HitchHiker is a different methodology for spinning and as such - I get a different work out than if I used my Kiwi...

anyhow. Thanks to those of you who read! And I'll try to get the pics/videos up sometime soon.

Happy Birthday to me!

So today is my birthday, and I'm in a pretty good place for it. My boss is happy with my performance at work (although there are items that have room for improvement - which is fine, because who wants to be completly perfect, it would be darn boring) and at some point during my day I'm supposed to be getting flowers from my mom... there's a present waiting from my hubby that I know I'm getting at dinner time, and life is good. Especially as I got one of my pressies last night.
This weekend at the Sheep and Wool festival I get to learn all about the care and maintenance of an antique Great Wheel / Walking wheel.

Yep - last night after work my poor little mini van ate a fully functional great wheel. It needs a little tlc for the wood - but I'm going to be picking the brains of Dave from the Merlin Tree (Who made my Hitchhiker Mini and did my customization on my Ashford Kiwi - PC and Beaky respectively named) on what to use to treat the wood and what to use for a drive band.

She's so pretty though, and OMG HUGE.

This seals it - we need to clean out the sun room or the home office ASAP so we can put together a home "studio" and I think my home office is the winner on this one. :-) She's well over 200 years old, and has a makers mark of JB 1205 carved into the table. My daughter has decided already that this is HER wheel, and I've told her that it's a wheel that she might be able to spin on when she's older, but it's not hers for a very long long long time - as in after Tessa's hair is grey and her face is very wrinkley. *grins* As she's 3, thats not going to be any time soon.

A Quiet day and a Wheel in the car

Ok - so the weather here in central CT is BEAUTIFUL today. So much that the fact I have my spinning wheel in my car is absolutely taunting me.

I took it last night to Stitch N Bitch up in Canton, where I enjoyed some wonderful company, and talked to one gal about cloth diapering while evidently kicking off another one's "ewwwwwwwwwww" meter, as she's a bit of a germaphobe. Something to do with the whole washing peed and pooped in diapers in the same machine you wash your clothing in. Urm - soiled clothing is soiled clothing and I for one am very glad for my washing machine's sanitize setting. Even if it does take three hours to wash a load of diapers using it. I need to go through my links on why cloth, and using wool, and all that other happy hoopla...

While there I finished spinning some really nastily balanced yarn I had been plying. It's a grape purple and Peanut butter tan color, and I'm going to have to see about re-spinning it to see if I can get it balanced properly before I skein it. Turns out the bobbin was coming unglued and that really affected the spin on it. I had high hopes for that one but it's turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment.

Fortunately I had another bobbin, and some other fiber I wanted to work with. I still have much more to ply in this combo, but didn't it turn out pretty? I think I'll be coming in early to work, taking lunch outside on nice days and spinnng during that time that I'm on lunch. It will be a twofold benefit to me - stress relief during my work day, and a chance to get my Etsy shop re-stocked with something other than commercially spun but hand dyed yarns. I had all these glorious plans last weekend, and very few of them came through, so I'm slowing down and starting over this weekend, and hopefully I'll get a fraction of them done. The good news is that I start my work from home Friday schedule tomorrow, so I'll take a TV Tray outside, and work from my porch with the laptop on it. Provided traffic isn't too much, I should be able to really get into things tomorrow and while on lunch again, get some more roving dyed. I think I really prefer dying the roving, vs the finished yarn. It's just a preferance thing for me.

The Parking lot has been empty. The ratio of open spaces to filled spaces is astonishing. Spring fever really seems to have hit, and with a bang. Convertables and SUV's/Jeeps fill the lot for the cars that are here.

Then there's the motorcycles that people have been riding in. Yes, that is a Ducati. Several of them can be found in our parking lot on a nice clear day.

What I got a giggle over today however was seeing someone else is realllly ready for the weekend too. See that yellow thing in the middle of the picture? Yep - it's a small boat on the roof of someones SUV. As the weather is in the 70's I can't blame them. Winter wasn't a record breaker but wasn't fun and we've all been ready to make a break for it - and I get the feeling the owner of that boat is going to have a three day weekend. Can't say as I blame him/her.

So as it's a Thurs and my last day of the week in the office I think I too have a bit of Cabin fever. I have a full day packed of meetings and work tomorrow but I'm going to be able to do that from home, and get in some spinning time while I'm at it. It all sounds like such glorious fun and I too can't wait to get out of here. So much creativity awaits, and Friday at 5PM can't come soon enough.